Developer pitches $5 million office plan for south Bethlehem parcel

Jim Petrucci wants to buy the little-used park appraised at $45,000 in south Bethlehem.

April 05, 2013|By Nicole Radzievich", Of The Morning Call

Bethlehem is considering selling a triangular-shaped tract near the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, once referred to as the "Hub," so a developer can build a $5 million office building there.

Jim Petrucci, whose company developed the Perkins restaurant nearby, said he doesn't have a tenant for the proposed three-story building, but would build it by the end of the year even without a guaranteed tenant if the city approves the project.

Calling it a "gateway site," Petrucci said he wanted to complete the project he and other developers began years ago in transforming the once industrial site to include more business and commerce. Recent changes to bridge, including a new ramp onto Route 378, opened up the 1-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Wyandotte and W. Third Street to development.

"This is an opportunity to fulfill the original mission and create a signature building," said Petrucci of J.G. Petrucci Co. in Asbury, N.J.

Fifteen years ago, the South Side's riverside between the Hill-to-Hill and Fahy bridges was little used industrial area used mostly by vagrants.

The Comfort Suites invested in the area in 1992 and, four years later, City Council rezoned that light industrial area into a commercial business district. ArtsQuest opened the Banana Factory cultural arts center and the Bethlehem Economic Corp. bought up vacant land that was once home to a fuel oil company, a vacant train station and burned-out former night club.

Petrucci became an early investor when he built the Perkins on one lot and the former train station is now Union Station, a St. Luke's University Hospital office building. And, close by on Second Street, is Lehigh Riverport, a complex of retail and condominiums.

There have been some setbacks. Riverport, for example, recently lost one of a high-profile tenant when Starters restaurant closed its Riverport location.

Petrucci proposed another office building in the area that was diverted, thanks to reconfigurations of Route 378, one of the Lehigh Valley's busiest roads.

But Joseph Kelly, city director of community and economic development, said progress is being made.

"Slowly, we're chipping away at it … it hasn't moved as quickly as prior administrations thought it would," Kelly said. "This is an opportunity to convert that vacant land in the corner that is really in keeping with what we believe is becoming a vibrant commercial corridor."

The proposed 24,000-square-foot office building would be built next to recognizable structures like the Cathedral Church of the Nativity and Sayre Mansion.

The sliver of land had been home to a little-used park that Bethlehem bought in 1986 for $21,000. The city had rededicated a stone marker commemorating the 74 area Army recruits who died in a 1961 air crash in Virginia. Fourteen were from Bethlehem. The memorial was moved in 2003 to the Rose Garden.

The city's appraisal shows the land is worth $45,000.

Councilman David DiGiacinto, the chairman of council's Community Development committee, said he's been assured the city doesn't need the property and the logical buyer would be an adjacent property owner.